The Rate of Global Young MPs Flatlines for the First Time in Over a Decade

Since 2014, the Inter-Parliamentary Union has biennially tracked what share of the world's parliamentarians are young, producing a tracker of generational representation in politics. Every report through 2023 showed positive, increased representation of young MPs, moving closer to representing the more than 50% world's population that is under 30. The 2025 report broke that pattern, with the global share of MPs aged 30 or under held flat at 2.8%, identical to 2023, the first time in over a decade the number did not move at all. Further, the IPU reports that 37.1% of the world's parliamentary chambers currently have no MP under 30 whatsoever. The IPU's own language for the gap between those two numbers is that with representation this thin, global democracy and development are both at risk.

The Decline in Young Female MPs under the overall Flatline

The aggregate stall is accompanied by a sharper decline underneath it: the share of MPs who are both under 30 and women dropped to 1.2% globally, down from 1.4% in the 2023 report. The broader category of women MPs 40 or under also fell, from 7.9% to 6.9%. Though the overall share of MPs 40 and under ticked up slightly, the representation of women fell nonetheless, meaning the ground lost wasn't spread evenly across the youth cohort – it primarily affected young women. Upper parliamentary houses remain the most closed institutions of all, as more than 75% currently have zero members under 30, largely a function of high minimum-age requirements written into law rather than election outcomes. In fact, young voters are increasingly more likely to vote in young MPs with their needs being better represented by people closer to their age. For women, this feeling of representation is no different. Thus, for young women aiming for national office, the barriers of age and gender are not simply additive, and the decline risks young female populations feeling under-represented.

What Can Move the Numbers

The IPU report is not purely a catalog of increasing, decreasing, and stagnation trends. It identifies the effect of term limits on youth representation, finding that countries with term limits in place have meaningfully higher shares of young MPs than the global average, presumably because term limits force turnover that outsider and younger candidates can capture. Individual countries also posted real gains: Senegal's share of MPs 30 or under jumped from 15.2% to 31.5%, and Ecuador and Mexico posted smaller but notable increases of their own, driven in Ecuador's case by a 2022 law requiring a quarter of electoral candidates to be “young adults”. The IPU's broader "I Say Yes to Youth in Parliament" campaign points to a notable set of devices used to bolster youth representation: youth quotas, lower candidacy eligibility ages, and dedicated youth caucuses inside parliaments. Where those mechanisms exist, the numbers often move, and the nations that lack them have less youth representation.

A Global Warning Amidst Youth Movements

The timing of the flatline is worth noting, as the IPU notes that the lack of progress is especially troubling given rising youth mobilization worldwide. These movements are often driven by economic insecurity and demands for democratic accountability, as seen in Gen Z-led protests from Nepal to Morocco over the past year. Globally, young people are repeatedly willing to organize and demand change outside formal political institutions. EVen if they are kept out of the room where policy is debated, they will nonetheless make themselves heard. What the 2025 data shows, then, is that very little of that energy is translating into actual seats, potentially causing risks of instability. With young women losing the most ground, protest will undoubtedly rely on that constituency’s decrease to sustain momentum. The IPU's own framing is that when parliaments don't reflect the people mobilizing outside them, the legitimacy and public trust those institutions depend on erodes. After a decade of slow but steady gains, the number that was supposed to keep climbing has stopped. What replaces it, whether renewed policy pushes like youth quotas or continued stagnation, is the open question.